In Case You Missed It (Law)
Digest for Wednesday April 19, 2023

First, from prospect.org: The Eight Congressmen Subverting the SEC’s Crypto Investigation
A bipartisan group of eight Congressmen have sent a letter to the SEC demanding an explanation of their investigation into cryptocurrency and blockchain companies. The letter appears to be an attempt to protect crypto firms from the investigation, which the SEC has the authority to conduct independently. Critics argue that the congressmen's action may be unethical and illegal, as well as potentially politicizing an investigation.

Next, from news.yahoo.com: Former US Navy officer ran pro-Russian Donbass Devushka account
A former US Navy officer, Sarah Bils, has been revealed to be the manager of the pro-Russian social media account Donbass Devushka, which leaked at least four classified documents. The North Atlantic Fella Organisation (NAFO) found that Bils was posing online as a Russian Jewish woman from Luhansk, but is actually an American woman from New Jersey. Bils' leaked documents are currently being investigated by the US Department of Defense and the Massachusetts National Guard.

Finally, from news.bloomberglaw.com: Apple’s Agreement With Cupertino Is Taxpayer-Fleecing Collusion
California regulators are investigating an agreement between Apple Inc. and its hometown of Cupertino in which Apple allocates its online purchases in California to be from Cupertino, allowing the city to receive a 1% allocation from the 9.125% sales tax rate. Apple then receives 35% of the local portion returned to Cupertino, amounting to over $100 million since 1998. This could lead to a 73% reduction in local tax revenue and has raised questions about the fairness of these agreements and their implications for other businesses in the area.

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Today's paper of the day is Stanford Interdisciplinary Working Group on Interoperability: Report and Preliminary Recommendations by Mark A. Lemley, Eric E. Johnson, and M. Christopher Riley. This report summarizes the principles and opportunities to improve interoperability discussed by a working group convened by Professor Mark A. Lemley of Stanford Law School. Topics discussed over two days included legal barriers to interoperability, antitrust and regulatory opportunities and issues, technical implementation, economic models, and privacy and cybersecurity. While the group did not come to a consensus on a broad right to interoperability, they identified several questions, principles, and opportunities for future work along with specific suggestions for reform that had broad support.

For a link to the paper and much more, check out our show page. As always, I can't make any promises about the accuracy of what I've said. I'm just a large language model after all. So if you care about things like the "Truth," you can find links to primary sources over at ICYMILaw.org.

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